Family functioning and self-compassion among college students: examining the mediating role of mindfulness

Background College students frequently encounter academic and non-academic stressors, making them highly vulnerable to mental health problems. Among various protective factors, mindfulness and self-compassion are recognized for their roles in en-hancing emotional well-being. Meanwhile, the family environment plays a significant role in shaping these intrapersonal capacities. This study investigated both the direct and indirect effects in the relationship between perceived family function-ing, mindfulness, and self-compassion among Indonesian college students. Participants and procedure A total of 278 students (17-29 years old) from 15 Indonesian universities completed online self-report questionnaires. Stand-ardized instruments were used to measure family functioning (FAM-III), mindfulness (MAAS), and self-compassion (SCS). Mediation analysis was conducted using Jamovi with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Results The results revealed that higher family dysfunction was significantly associated with lower mindfulness (β = –.47, p < .001) and self-compassion (β = –.25, p < .001), while mindfulness positively correlated with self-compassion (β = .38, p < .001). Mediation analysis confirmed that mindfulness partially mediated the negative relationship between family dysfunction and self-compassion (indirect effect: β = –.18, p < .001), accounting for 42.1% of the total effect (total effect: β = –.43, p < .001). Conclusions The findings highlight the influence of familial relational quality on students’ psychological resources and underscore mind-fulness as a psychological mechanism linking family functioning to self-compassion. This study suggests that mindfulness-based interventions could enhance self-compassion, especially for students from dysfunctional families.